When you plug the charger in, it should go into the wall first, and you should get a green LED on the charger.
When you plug the charger into the VML, you should get the charger LED to turn red. If this does not happen when plugged into the inverter, plug it into the battery directly. If it still does not happen, put a load on the battery to drain it a little and try again. If you can get the LED to go red, wiggle the cord to see if the LED will flicker green/red as though there is a loose connection.
You can also check all Anderson (red/black) connectors to ensure all the contacts are forward in the housing, not corroded, and equally elevated. A flat, corroded, or pushed back connector may not be making good connection.
You can also charge to (indicated) full and run a model lamp from the VML. Presumably it has a 150W bulb, so you would want to run it about 1/4 to 1/2 stop down from full (basically, don't go over 120W). Run time at 120W should be about an hour. 100W, about 1 hour 20 minutes. 75W (half power) will be just shy of two hours. If this is close, then the battery is taking and holding a full charge. If not close, then the battery may be reaching end of life.
If you would like to send the inverter in for service, we can arrange for it to be delivered to LA, and you should be able to bring the battery along with you when you come. If the inverter works fine here, then the battery is likely the cause. If the battery needs to be replaced, we can ship that to LA as well.
By not shipping the whole device, you save on the lithium battery handling procedures. I would suggest contacting our repair department for details on what the charges would be if the inverter was the problem vs. the battery, and to work out logistics, depending on where we would ship to, once repaired.
|